GIS ANALYSIS OF THE SEISMIC DAMAGE ON HISTORICAL MASONRY SPIRES

Abstract. The Emilia 2012 earthquake highlighted the high vulnerability of historical masonry spires, at the top of bell towers. Indeed almost half of the spires, in the area hit by the seismic event, show the loss of the top. The observed collapse mechanism consists in sliding of the spire top and in the resulting overturning. Once the emergency phase has passed, it is now a duty to learn from this traumatic experience and to provide new tools for the prevention of the destructive effects of future earthquakes. In this perspective, a geodatabase was designed, using the ArcGIS Pro software, for monitoring the vulnerabilities of the surveyed spires. Indeed, as we learn from the study of the effects of past earthquakes, seismic damages are recurrent for each building typology and therefore they can be predictable and avoidable. For example, by statistically elaborating the data of the designed database, a correlation arose between the levels of damage of the spires and their type of masonry arrangement. Indeed four different masonry typologies have been distinguished. The work then focuses on three damaged spires of churches belfries, proposing three consolidation hypotheses to prevent the future loss of the rebuilt top part of the spire. The structural analyses, performed with Abaqus CAE and detailed in a different work, showed that the same intervention produces different results on the different case studies: a demonstration that there is not an "absolute" best solution, but an intervention suitable for each case.</p

CENSUS OF ABANDONED BUILT HERITAGE ASSETS: THE IMPORTANCE OF DEFINING SHARED METHODOLOGIES AND ONTOLOGIES

The paper shows the studies carried out within the framework of two research agreements for the census of abandoned enlisted assets owned by public bodies in the Provinces of Piacenza, Parma and Reggio Emilia, stipulated with the respective Heritage Departments. The purpose of this research is to increase the cognitive framework of cultural assets in a state of abandonment, and then to transfer the results to the dedicated WebGIS platform, with the aim of identifying the ones which are most in need of a conservation and reuse intervention, in order to return them back to their community. Afterwards, as a result of the cataloguing carried out, it was possible to make some critical considerations and statistical reworkings of the collected data. The data analysis, performed through the design of a GIS database, finds out a higher frequency of abandonment for some specific building types and with recurring locations. The research also highlights, once again, the importance of defining common ontologies, which are essential for statistical data processing and interoperability between different existing databases

Direct Detection of 5-MeV Protons by Flexible Organic Thin-Film Devices

The direct detection of 5-MeV protons by flexible organic detectors based on thin films is here demonstrated. The organic devices act as a solid-state detector, in which the energy released by the protons within the active layer of the sensor is converted into an electrical current. These sensors can quantitatively and reliably measure the dose of protons impinging on the sensor both in real time and in integration mode. This study shows how to detect and exploit the energy absorbed both by the organic semiconducting layer and by the plastic substrate, allowing to extrapolate information on the present and past irradiation of the detector. The measured sensitivity, S = (5.15 ± 0.13) pC Gy−1, and limit of detection, LOD = (30 ± 6) cGy s−1, of the here proposed detectors assess their efficacy and their potential as proton dosimeters in several fields of application, such as in medical proton therapy

Influence of the scattering potential model on low energy electron diffraction from Cu(001)−c(2 × 2)-Pb

A dynamical LEED intensity analysis is reported for Cu(001)−c(2 × 2)-Pb. The adsorbate layer distance from the substrate is determined as 2.29 Å, and the topmost interlayer spacing for the substrate is the same as in bulk Cu, in contrast to a contraction for clean Cu(001). This structural result is, within the accuracy reached, insensitive to changes in the assumed scattering potential models. The r-factors suggest a weak preference for an energy-dependent exchange correlation and a moderate one for adding a localized adsorption part inside the muffin-tin spheres. The sensitivity of spectra and r-factors to changes in the assumed isotropic Debye temperature for Pb suggests that vibrational anisotropy should be taken into account in order to improve the accuracy of the analysis. Calculated spin polarization spectra are very sensitive to the exchange approximation, the localized absorption and the Debye temperature. Together with experimental data, they should be useful in particular for determining the vibrational anisotropy

A LEED structural analysis of the Co(100) surface

The structure of the clean Co(1010) surface has been analysed by LEED. Application of a recently developed computational scheme reveals the prevalence of the termination A in which the two topmost layers exhibit a narrow spacing of 0.62 Å, corresponding to a 12.8(±0.5)% contraction with respect to the bulk value, while the spacing between the second and third layer is slightly expanded by 0.8(±0.2)%